ADFinlayson

Of course I did, I popped over to see a luthier acquaintance after work (lives only 8 miles away) - I told him I was going to have a go at an acoustic and he suggested I come over and talk acoustics, I was in awe of his 2 works shops, tools, wood, builds etc and tried out 6 of his classical guitars while absorbing lots of tips (he's now my best friend), came home excited and got crackin' I was hoping you would chime in on this thread A communication faux pas on my part - I only meant to get the back down to 2.8, actually looking at the plans it needed to be 2.5 and the sides 2.2 (the top is 2.8 according the plans I'm going from). Anyway I've got the back thicknessed down to 2.6mm and sides down to 2.2mm, I put 120 grit paper on the drum this time so I shouldn't need to remove too much material to get a smooth surface - my sander tends to leave quite deep streaks with 80 grit. Those streaks are a bit annoying, I should have really flipped it the other way but that would have introduced even more sap wood which I didn't want to do. Glue joint is spot on though. Next I cut out the side profile from the plan and scored round it on the sides (I had masking tape and superglued the 2 sides together) then cute it out close to the line on the band saw. I put the side profile in the mould to make out where the bends were - steeling some ideas from @Andyjr1515 here More idea theft... and some more... I left those soak in the bath for about 10 mins while the iron warmed up to 250ºC and boom the bottom one is not brilliant just passed the waste, I didn't want to clamp it too tight with the braces in case it cracked - I made the mistake of bending the front curve first. On the top side I bent the waste first and it came out perfect. Going back to the back, I scored a line 3mm either side of the seam and went at it with a chisel, took about an hour then realised I have a router and a 6mm bit that would have done this job in 30 seconds. Theres a strip of flamed maple binding going in here. This is when I realised that the gobar deck needs to be made sooner rather than later So far I am finding this whole thing very enjoyable, and I didn't even burn myself!

Like the side mould if this goes tits up

This evening I started muddling through my first acoustic build. I got some free OM plans online in PDF form and got a few hard copies from my local printers (which is a much cheaper way to buy plans! 3 copies for half the price of 1 ordered online). I also got myself a premade OM mould from G&W - worked out £100 inc shipping, I still need to get myself a couple of radius dishes which I shall order when I need them and I also plan to make a gobar deck - as they're very expensive to buy. I'm using cheap wood for this one - black walnut back and sides and a "B" spruce top, which are on route from Maderas Barber, I also ordered a spare set of everything plus a set of ebony back and sides on the off chance that this goes well. Talking of going well, I started off by thicknessing down the back and sides to 2.8mm and the drum sander said Up yours. They're down to 3.5mm and I couldn't be bothered to change the paper over tonight so I moved on to jointing the top (I'll get them down to final thickness after glue up. I realised shooting board is only big enough for electric tops so I had to MacGyver something out of mdf. I then realised these pieces were not only longer but thinner than any pieces I'd glued up before and my big sash cramps and F clamps weren't going to work, so I did some more happy clamping and came up with this setup - the joint is raised up by 1/2" with those piano keys wedged underneath (they just happened to be in the inlay materials box and the right height), so I glued up, pulled the edges out from under it and put some pressure on the joint to keep it flat. That's all she wrote for now, I expect tomorrow evenings antics will start with changing the paper on the drum sander so I can get everything dimensioned, I also need to get cracking on Matts tele which I need the drum sander for too.

What's the rationale behind putting the bending iron on it's side? is it easier to keep the bend square? I was toying with making some sort of table that the iron could sit in and keep the sides flush on the table to keep them square - when I was bending some little binding pieces to go around a truss rod cover, I saw how easy it is to bend a twist into the work.

Fantastic work Andy, if you hadn't gone into detail about the taper along the back of the sides, I'd have cocked that up! I picked my plans up from the printers yesterday and my mould is arriving on Monday, so excited

Have you sanded the lacquer at all? I had that issue with the bass I've just finished, it looks fined until I level sanded then some of the lacquer dust got trapped in the grain because I didn't do a good enough job or grain filling. so I grain filled again over the mostly level lacquer to fill those pours before spraying again.

that'll look tasty with aluminum inlay

I hadn't heard of Luthiers Bench, if this iron turns out to be useless then I'll consider that. The aluminum one is quite a bit cheaper than the bronze, however they take the piss on shipping. Tonetech is very expensive IMO, I've stopped buying from them

thanks dude, all benders are imports to me as no one in the uk seems to makes them, the all require changing the plug over etc. I had also heard the odd tale about the element failing - I guess that is the same as not getting hot enough or not heating up at all. I've had this one upto 250ºC (according to the digital meter, but it got so hot that water didn't fizzle off the top it just immediately beaded off which means really hot) and it's worked great so far but I guess the proof will be when I come to bend the sides on my acoustic build.

Finished the purple one. Few things I could have done better I think, there is a slight seam visible on the headstock, I rolled over the edge of the headstock under the nut so it looks like there is a gap under the nut, both of those things annoyed me greatly. I think I washed out the colour a bit too much, especially, need to remember that the stained top prior to finish is not what final product will look like. But this is the 3rd single cut I've done and by far my best yet, plays bloody well too. I'll be delivering it at the weekend

Love the sound hole Andy, This build couldn't come at a better time for me - I've got OM moulds and plans on the way

Looks awesome mate, I like the arty solution to recessing the bridge. Looking forward to seeing some lacquer on it

It's the more expensive of the Chinese benders, I think it was about £85 including postage, though I did have to put a UK plug on it. http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5575536527&toolid=10001&campid=5338593098&customid=&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fitm%2FNew-Guitar-Violin-Rib-Bending-Iron-Bend-Side-wood-Iron-Guitar-Making-Tools-220V%2F202803912609%3F_trkparms%3Dispr%3D1%26hash%3Ditem2f380e1fa1%3Ag%3Am-oAAOSwffRdrEeB%26enc%3DAQAFAAACYBaobrjLl8XobRIiIML1V4Imu%2Fn%2BzU5L90Z278x5ickkrmmq8hWevtuKE7%2F%2BLfVXtmuOUlbwik11wgRsn%2FoJW4LzVhzEyaAxcjnrr49PZQ599pwv4EpFwbWi8oaGh4EInq7xj74OG%2FyRIuWtFlzF3sr9LiGTaWfrN%2BGEaYDyslWzELQPb61%2BhXM%2FcY4RzM1DFzMYn9WRZS2Fie7kDAjjlVOybDXIkObjcfnEBLLK2mwRtRO1DTdV7iNmP1i4etLPgo2uDSr9gZG%2ByafQBQDyxifZj0eiHC7cgR6%2BJxT82Z0vRgbupW3iuay3H2oGTe5DYZAAJVOi9b4d7%2FHXOVvVvpiqo803QGRoGLaK9D0u2zhRnhtcekjWzd5gm6PpCnwNAzXvkR60OE4jTTZ5pjdNd2ZhPM0mK4j%2BIhcft99IYfKjpO%2Bh0pKHJb54kY0yPgMsML%2BKbLZPbg2K1NkyEMvmOTpl6naO%2BL2URGsbXJYDKrnX3QvWvYdtV09ZUwkDSXuF%2Fcm22SC%2B17JZU1gGt6d%2BoIWW9btAZ8pSIEZThc6XciF%2BK3vuf9R77CUgiPBjlwfbbHAAgZ7tWd1F%2FfNUYUhsq9EyyxCubX7on0QORoTk2g2N6sLfm7Gz%2FiTbCaMgFlW3T1U76UmHFTf2eVZk2ob3ugHWRLsspdiKecwLfxumheRsKp7IrAEsubCRwkqezbH2VcjBSrF4ec6C3FKmTy0olwk8Pvv%2BboXF0tuR6CT%2FjZMwLjlEFG85n0tIjqu5tfVwFwcUVXW46QF3RqjalBTxPgwVOmnVL0z0RHLUovUWis7h%26checksum%3D202803912609e82e9fe7f311424ab97b0101de9599e2 ha no, I made a spare strip of quilt maple binding in case the neck binding job went south so I used some of that. Though bending ziricote must be possible, I've seen a few acoustics with ziricote backs and sides (my acoustic goals). Thank you for the kind words, I definitely feel that spraying lacquer has stepped them up a notch, though I'm still a long way away from perfection, I never seem to get grain filling quite right, and after 10 builds I'm still utterly shit at wiring. I think I still have a lot more mistakes to make

Little vanity project - I've been geeing myself up to do an acoustic build and got a bending iron, so I had a go at binding a bit of ziricote to make a fancy truss rod cover. I snapped 2 bits of 2mm thick maple, so I cut the third bit down to 1.5mm and that did the trick. Don't let the photo fool you, the iron was on 250ºC - Amazed I didn't burn myself I'm not overly happy with the visible seam on the headstock, but we don't need to talk about that. Just need to buff the back covers and she's done

cabinet scrapers make very short work of plastic binding, so I'd get it close with that same as Norris suggests, I also use curved cabinet scrapes (sometimes called kindney scrapers), they're ideal for shaping along the edge of a carved top like a les paul prs etc, that'll let you selectively reduce your binding height without gouging into the wood. If the height of the binding is way to too tall though, you could just trim it down on your band saw so it's only just over dimension before you glue it on.

Haha. I found shining a torch once I’ve wiped it down shows up low spots, failing that I need proper natural sunlight or just can’t see the shiny bits

It’s 03:50. I’ve been wet sanding one of my builds and got a bit carried away, poured another beer, you know how it goes

If she did it wouldn’t matter, she doesn’t listen to anything I say

Those switch craft toggles have caught me out a couple of times. I don’t like the fact the common pin is so close to the two pickup pins, not with my bodge wiring anyway. I think I’d agree, wiring is my weakest part, I get everything wired up and it looks super neat, then I realise something isn’t working, I end up removing and reattaching a few things then it looks like a dogs dinner. going back to switches, I’ve put a switchcraft 3 way toggle in the purple lp and it seems insanely sensitive, way more so than any switchcraft I’ve used before. It may get swapped

That is what my girlfriends feet look like when she takes her shoes and socks off

As you know I'm no expert, but I used CA in quite a few place son the bass. Once I got the first few coats of lacquer on, I found several hairline cracks in the wood that I didn't notice before the gloss, I filled those with CA, sanded flush and recoated. Those areas are now completely invisible. Based on how many gos you've had on this build though, I think you need to make some sort of sacrifice before you proceed, maybe a goat, cow, or sweet spot blonde.

I've been working on the singlecut over the last week, got it all sanded and buffed up And some assembly, it was at this point I realised I got the bridge pickup wrong, so I superglued some cocktail sticks in the pickup ring holes, went at the inside of the cavity with a gouge because there wasn't enough room - it only needed to move over by 1-2mm and it was just the pickup post that was fouling the cavity, I must have just got the cavity slightly off. Now the pickup ring is sorted and it's all wired up. I spent an hour or so noodling on it with my little fender combo. Will give it a proper bash on a valve amp tomorrow. I just needs a truss rod cover and it's done

The seller Mahogany Green https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=mahogany_green_luthier_supplies&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=jescar&_sacat=0

Guitar is looking great mate, love the headstock veneer. There is an Irish seller on ebay that sells jescar evo gold etc at a pretty decent price, I think they do also sell it in rolls by the pound if you want bulk although when I looked it was the height of lockdown and their supply was quite limited - I think quite a few of the usa factories were shut down for a period. I've got some white mop from G&W in portugal which isa reasonable price although it's quite different in appearance to white more I've used in the past. Compare these two inlays. The first pic is white mop from Small Wonder Music in UK The second pic is the white mop from G&W, As you can see it's much whiter and not quite as shiny, although you can only really tell the difference when you're looking at close. The G&W stuff is quite a bit cheaper and thicker than the stuff from small wonder.

Phwaaar